Chapter 38
2024 - Here is that phrase again to begin chapter 38: "In those days..." It seems to very consistently signal that we are looking at a clean break from what was going on just before. End of 37, Sennacherib is murdered by his own sons. Then in 38 we get that key phrase, and we are talking about Hezekiah being sick - probably years later, if not decades later. Hmm...But this time it is not a prophecy that it signals, but a skip in time to another story. Need to separate out the number of times it is just a skip.
2024 - But then down in vss 5-6, it reads as if we have moved backward to BEFORE Sennacherib returned to Assyria.
In verse 5, speaking to Isaiah, God says "Go", and "say". Go is an absolute infinitive, say is sequential perfect. These make sense. A direct command to go, and the sequential action to that first action. Then, we are told what Isaiah is to say. Not that he says it, it is not a narration of Isaiah speaking, it is what Isaiah should say. So we get "Thus says..." and this is in the perfect type. The perfect signals a completed action or a situation that is all taken together as a completed event. I get that whatever God says ought to be considered a done deal. Complete. If God says it, there is no doubt of it. BUT, we don't know if it is complete in the past, or is guaranteed in the future. What the translators usually do with the Hebrew perfect is translated it as a past tense. That is, we think of completed events as "past". He ran, or in past perfect "he has run" maybe. BUT, the perfect can also be translated as a present or a future. This verse could be translated "Thus said", or "Thus God will say" and be technically correct. So it is more about the how than the when. The how of it is God.
Then we get "I have heard" and "I have seen" and "I will add". As we read this, we have two past tenses, indicating events that have already happened, and then a future tense for what God will do in the future. In Hebrew, these three are two perfects and an imperfect. It seems to me that in context, the two perfect types in this case obviously refer to the past. It does not mean that "God will hear", and perhaps the contextual clue to that is that He is going to do something in the future. The imperfect type, used in "I will add", means continuous, incomplete, or open ended. In this case, incomplete. God WILL add, but the 15 years is not yet done. It says 15 years, so it is not open ended. There is a specific time period involved. The two perfects tells us that the hearing and the seeing are done deals. Context tells us that they were done in the past, so the English past tense is the right translation. And the imperfect type for add signals us that this is what God has decided to do. It is not sequential, because hearing does not automatically lead to adding. God made a decision to add.
Then we get the part we are most interested in. In vs 6 God says "I will deliver...", and then "I will defend...". These are imperfect and sequential perfect. That imperfect signals continuous, incomplete, or ongoing. So there is no way this was before Sennacherib went home. I think the implication is that Hezekiah was sick before the events in the previous chapter. Deliver is continuous and ongoing. If Sennacherib had already gone home, this verb would be in the perfect. A completed action or event. It is not in the perfect though. It is not done. Hmm...it might be referring to the fact that Sennacherib is still living. Perhaps he is gone home, but the danger of his return is ongoing, and so God's deliverance of Israel from Assyria is a continuing situation. And defend is a sequential perfect because once delivered, God will be extending his protection - his protection will be ongoing. In hindsight, once Sennacherib went home, he never came back. In fact Assyria never came back.
I get that all these 2024 notes are sort of "much ado about nothing", but we first have to understand the simple translations, so that we have principles for application in the more difficult translations. So for me, Hezekiah gets sick AFTER Sennacherib has returned to Assyria, but BEFORE Assyria falls. Jerusalem was delivered from the invasion of Sennacherib, but Assyria was still a threat. But God here promises that his decision was not to deliver from just this current invasion, but defend Jerusalem from Assyria in perpetuity. And the confirmation of that interpretation is whether or not Assyria ever again invaded Judah after this. And I don't know...but I will be watching for it.
Hezekiah gets sick, and Isaiah tells him it is unto death. Hezekiah prays for more time. God grants him another 15 years. The sign of His promise is that the sun will go backwards 10 degrees on the sundial of Ahaz.
These verses in Hezekiah's recounting of God giving him more life:
18 For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness. 19 The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness. [Isa 38:18-19 ESV]
David prayed a very similar prayer. Let me live so I can praise you more. The dead in Sheol do not do so. That is not really the case any more. The saved go to Paradise now, and can praise God. But do they? Or does it wait for the second coming?
2024 - Vss 21-22 seem to be sort of tacked onto the end for add'l explanation. They refer back to the time BEFORE Hezekiah was healed. Both these main verbs are sequential imperfects. So now I know that sequentials can be either perfect or imperfect. In this case, both the "cure" using figs on a boil and the sign are both continuous, incomplete, or on-going. We can understand this to mean that Hezekiah is still undergoing treatment, and I would say he is still unclean, and will be so until he is cured, and at that time, he can return to the Temple.